Don't worry, I'm safe, and I hope you are too
I've received emails from a few worried people who still think I'm in London. Well, I've got good news and bad news. The good news is I'm totally safe and have been back in the U.S., luckily, for some time now. The bad news is I'm STILL that crazy son of a bitch you've got to deal with. For those of you who I've neglected to inform of my return, I'm sorry, I've just been busy. I could have saved a lot of you some unnecessary worry, but hey, this is what you get for not keeping up with my blog.
All joking aside, I want to send my thoughts and prayers to the people of London. You all may be six time zones away, but this tragedy still hits close to home.
Today I was at the bookstore reading, of all things appropriate, a Michael Moore book, when I noticed this little boy tugging at his dad's shirt. He couldn't have been more than eight years old. And for the first time in his life, he asked: "Dad, why is there terrorism?"
His dad hesitated, then said, "Because there are bad people out there that want to take away what we have by hurting us."
"Will the bad people ever go away?"
"Only if we KILL them all," his dad said.
The little boy nodded.
I'm not trying to offer any solutions here, but I was vaguely disappointed in the way the kid's dad decided to answer the question. Children being planted subtle seeds of hate at such a young age is the very reason we're running out of subway tunnels screaming in horror years later. Extremism is here to stay, and those terrorists definitely need to be brought to justice, but let's not train our youth to be angry or to fear scarf-wearing Muslims at school.
We've got to be smarter than that.
RSS
5 Comments
I couldn't agree with you more, Pete. It's been said very often, but we need to look at the cause of these actions, not rally against the effects. It can't be stressed enough. Hopefully that kid has a mother who can show another angle to this situation.
You're a bright guy Pete and you have good intentions, I'll give you that, but I am sorry to say that you are confusing your ideology for wisdom. You contradicted yourself when you said that the terrorists should be brought to justice, but you were disappointed the father said we should kill them. What else are we to do with these lowlifes, slap them on the hands with a ruler and let them go? There is a reality to the situation Pete, and the reality is that we need to get them before they get us. With all respect, cut the bullshit ideology.
Chris, I did mention in my post that the terrorists need to be brought to justice. Whether or not they all deserve to die is not my decision to make or my concern. The thing that disappointed me about the father's statements is how simple he made things sound for his son: "the only way we stop the bad people is if we kill them."
As I'm sure you would agree, things are much more complicated than that. I'm not saying we should automatically get all kumbaya about it, but let's inform the delicate minds of children a little better, shall we?
While I have to agree with Chris and some of his statements, what the father said is true, and sadly the only viable solution it seems, but I also agree with you Pete, while the father was right in his statements, it doesn’t mean the kid should hear it that way. When you’re dealing with terrorists there is no justice. They don’t live on the same rules we do, here it is a kill or be killed. Visualize yourself in the jungle, you aren’t going to be able to have a conference and professionally talk a solution with a 200 lb hungry cat. Sadly you must kill before it kills you, and the same goes for these radical terrorists.
Back to the father and son though, I’m sure as any father he gets a lot of questions from his son, and if he thought about it as much as you did sitting there listening from a different perspective, he probably would have taken the effort to explain it to his son not so harshly. However answering the question as many of us probably would, the quick and easy answer is usually the one picked. Also on another note, its in your nature to be kind and forgiving, even on the subject of terrorism.
Holy crap. No father should say something like that to a young boy. What's true and what should be told to a little kid are often two totally different things.